Facts and myths about gun control

By Compiled by Matt Levin

on August 27, 2015 7:49 PM

Facts and myths about gun violence

Rumor #1:

Adolf Hitler favored gun control.

Veracity: False.

What to know: The Treaty of Versailles tightened gun regulations in Germany after World War I. Hitler worked to loosen firearm restrictions for the country, except for one group of people: the Jews. In 1938, the Nazis passed the Regulations Against Jews’ Possessions of Weapons, while gun ownership rose for the rest of the country.

But to act like that regulation against the Jews is a mark against “gun control” is specious. More guns would not have stopped the Holocaust. The law was just one of many measures passed by the Nazis in a much larger scheme to persecute and eliminate the Jewish people.

What to know: Pro-gun pundits sometimes modify these claims, saying hammers kill more than rifles or AK-47s. That’s true, but extremely misleading. Those weapons, while prominent in pop culture, aren’t responsible for the majority of gun deaths in the country.
The FBI totaled 6,220 handgun deaths compared to 496 deaths by blunt objects in 2011, according to Politifact.

What to know: It’s not uncommon to hear the media or individuals refer to automatic and semi-automatic weapons as interchangeable. Automatic weapons -- which need only one pull of the trigger to fire multiple shots – are heavily regulated and banned in some states. Not many people own them. Semi-automatic weapons require a pull of the trigger for every shot.

What to know: Texas is not the Wild West. Politifact debunked a claim that “it’s legal to shoot someone who’s committing a ‘public nuisance’ under the cover of dark” in Texas. Guns and Ammo lists the Lone Star State as merely the 15th best state for gun owners in its 2015 rankings (Arizona was no. 1). And Texas has nowhere near the highest percentage of gun owners by state. Only a third of residents own a gun, compared to half in states like Arkansas and Wyoming.

The U.S. has a much higher firearm homicide rate than the rest of the developed world.

Veracity: True.

What to know: The key word here is “developed.” The comparison only works when comparing the U.S. to first-world countries like Israel, Japan, Australia or the countries that make up Western Europe. Most (not all) of those countries have strict gun regulations. Mass shootings (four or more people shot or killed) are significantly more common here.

Rumor #5: The U.S. has a much higher firearm homicide rate than...photo-6552450.115976 - |ucfirst

Rumor #6:

The National Rifle Association was founded to protect freed slaves and fought the KKK.

Veracity: False.

What to know: Not even the NRA claims this. On its website, the organization says the group was founded by Union veterans to help troops improve marksmanship. The Ku Klux Klan formed soon after the Civil War as well, but there’s no evidence the NRA wanted to stand up to them. One civil rights activist, Robert Williams, received an NRA charter and formed the Black Armed Guard to oppose the Klan, Politifact writes. That hardly counts though.

A 2013 Pew Research Center poll showed 85 percent of Americans favored “background checks for private and gun show sales,” and 80 percent favor more policies preventing the mentally ill from obtaining guns. Even 67 percent of respondents support a “federal database to track gun sales.” And more than half of Americans want bans on “high-capacity” clips, online sales of ammunition, semi-automatic weapons and assault style weapons.

What to know: Yes, that’s a crucial reason why Texas had an open carry ban on handguns in the first place. The Houston Chronicle wrote last December about how in 1871 the state passed a ban on carrying pistols that was a thinly veiled means for selectively enforcing the law against black people. Many other southern states flat out made it illegal for blacks to possess guns.

What to know:Barack Obama and others have made this claim. The ATF program purposely peddled guns at the U.S.-Mexico border to better trace them – and then the government agency lost track of the arms. The screw-up began more than a year after Obama’s election. Unlike what Rick Perry has claimed, Obama seemingly did not initiate or approve of “Fast and Furious.” Nevertheless the blunder occurred under the Obama administration.

George Washington wanted an armed citizenry to protect against abuse from one’s “own government.”

Veracity: False.

What to know: That’s a bogus quote from the first president. Thomas Jefferson didn't say anything like it either. Washington said “a free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined.” He supported the right to bear arms, of course. However, the founding father supported a militia for taking on outside forces (under the auspice of the government).

Historians agree that Washington was not implying that Americans should be armed to fight their own leaders. Yet “resistance against government tyranny” is an oft-repeated point by gun rights activists. As if an armed militia has any chance against a predator drone.

More Americans die from gun violence in the U.S. than in Afghanistan (or Iraq).

Veracity: Unfair claim.

What to know: Yes, guns kill more Americans in their homeland than abroad. But that’s cause way more Americans live in the United States than Afghanistan or Iraq (makes sense, right?). A better comparison is homicide rate, and Americans die at a much higher clip in foreign wars.

Rumor #11: More Americans die from gun violence in the U.S. than...photo-7514971.115976 - |ucfirst

Rumor #12:

The UN wants to create an international gun registry or ban.

Veracity: False.

What to know: This rumor spun out of control over an Arms Trade Treaty designed to stop the flow of illicit international sales. It had nothing to do with regulating sales within the U.S. or circumventing the Second Amendment, a claim once made by former Texas senate candidate Craig James.

What to know: Allen West and other pundits have cited the Environmental Protection Agency shutting down a smelter last year as proof that gun owners will have to buy their bullets overseas. Nothing supports this agenda. And the closing of the smelter had no effect on ammunition prices. Most lead for firearms in the U.S. is made from secondary sources like old car batteries, a National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman told Politifact.
The ATF has banned bullets that could pierce police body armor. But the weapons that use those bullets could easily substitute other ammunition.

What to know: The Treaty of Versailles tightened gun regulations in Germany after World War I. Hitler worked to loosen firearm restrictions for the country, except for one group of people: the Jews. In 1938, the Nazis passed the Regulations Against Jews’ Possessions of Weapons, while gun ownership rose for the rest of the country.

But to act like that regulation against the Jews is a mark against “gun control” is specious. More guns would not have stopped the Holocaust. The law was just one of many measures passed by the Nazis in a much larger scheme to persecute and eliminate the Jewish people.